On Defence Against The Dark Arts
by I'm not telling
Summary: Well, he had to admit that maybe he owed the old man one. It couldn't be that bad teaching a bunch of kids to defend themselves, could it?
1. Chapter 1

_Just another cloudy, cold day in England._ Danny sighed, wiping his hair back away from his face, turning down a side street as he kept jogging. He had another few streets to head down before heading back, and he was damned if gloomy weather would ever get in his way.

He really had to wonder what made him decide to live here, of all places - he could live reasonably anywhere in the world, hot or cold, and he chose some place where he couldn't see the sun _at all_. He really had to question his own sanity, at moments like this.

After a second, he shook his head, picking up his pace slightly as he decided he'd been in England too long. This was probably the hundreth time he'd complained to himself about the cloudy weather this summer. _Maybe I should give Australia another try._

He turned another corner, going off the street and over a paved path through... well, he assumed a park. It might be someone's yard. England could be like that, sometimes. He shook his head, being sure to watch where he was going over the winding path, noticing the smell of fresh lavender wafting up over the area. There was a little trick about this path, and he planned on using it to the fullest like every morning.

The path meandered near a creek, along the back of a set of houses carefully set on the other side of rows and rows of fences. Most people could just make a gate coming out the back and with a bit of pushing through brush make it out to the path. With a quick looked over ether shoulder as he slowed down his jog, he pushed off the path and intangibly through the bushes.

He landed with a clack, completely invisible on the other side - he was now in a dead end street, old and littered with trash cans. He wrinkled his nose, regaining visibility. He'd never understand the need to put out the trash on a Monday Morning.

It only took a few minutes until he finally came back on his house, slowing to a stop and taking a few deep gasping breaths before finally approaching the front step.

Danny looked up to his front door, only to fall short at seeing an old, bearded man, dressed in a long robe. He shook his head, taking the last step up the steps.

"Hey Al." He said, still gasping for air. "You should... should have told me you where coming." He said, going forward to open the front door. "Could've started breakfast earlier, done something nice. You want some tea?"

"Of course." Dumbledore said, smiling amicably as he stepped into the cottage. "I would love some."

"Got ya - tea, coming up." He said, laughing as he grabbed a towel to quickly wipe down his face. "Give me a second to wash up, and I'll grab us some."

"Ah." Danny turned, confused at the sudden sound of dissent, only to see Dumbledore shaking his head. "I'm afraid I don't have too much time, old friend - perhaps it would be better if we simply cut to the chase."

Danny blinked, frowning. He took a deep breath, steadying out his pounding heart slightly, before sighing harshly and shaking his head. "Okay. Okay. Let me call in sick and you can tell me what the bloody hell that means."

* * *

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised." Danny said offhandedly, putting down his teacup with a tiny clink. They were currently sitting around a thick wooden table, set between the kitchen and leading into the dining room. It worked as both a kitchen table and a workbench, and Danny tried to ignore the open computer he 'd set to the side as he looked at the old man across from him. "You knew he was planning some way to come back - you just didn't know _how_."

"I had no illusions about his return, that is the truth." He sighed. "However, I never imagined it would involve any of my students - not like this."

Danny frowned. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened. Did you manage to keep the school open?"

"Yes, yes - there was always the chance of death, during the trials." He said gravely, suddenly looking haggard. "Unfortunately I fear that also means the Ministry means to not take this warning seriously. The fact that he was able to infiltrate the school as he had... it doesn't bode well, for the coming years."

"Albus." Danny turned, looking at the man. "Why are you here?"

The old man was silent for a moment, before placing his cup down back onto the saucer. "You need to come with me."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "And here I was expecting you to ask me back into the order."

Dumbledore looked at him seriously. "You can't keep yourself hidden anymore - Voldermort will be looking for anything he can use to his advantage, and while you've remained hidden well enough over the last few years, now that he is active again there's no telling how long it will take until he finds you and uses you." He said, voice grave. "You can't face this alone."

"And what do you want me to do about that, huh? Hide me away like James and Lily, maybe?"

"No, old friend. There's a bit too much going on at the moment, and too little I can do while we wait. What I intend to do is offer you a job."

"...Uh." Danny blinked, eyes glancing to the side. "Not to say anything about it, but I mean." He motioned to the house around him. "I've kinda got that covered for the time being. Isn't this a bit of a bad time to be giving out job offers?"

"Don't pretend you don't know how much safer you would be, at Hogwarts." Danny's eyes narrowed, turning to stare down at the rugged carpet. "You can't pretend that it isn't true - you're vulnerable here. At Hogwarts, you will be protected, shielded."

"And I'll be there if someone breaks into the castle again."

"Precisely."

"And how exactly do you plan this to work out, huh?" He said, frowning. "What, do you have an opening in the astronomy tower?"

"Not exactly."

"Then how are you going to make that work? I'm not exactly up to becoming groundskeeper. Or even a teacher for that matter."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "I thought you enjoyed the idea of teaching magic?"

"I wasn't being _that_ serious." He said, rolling his eyes "Besides, I've done enough teaching to last a lifetime without getting involved with a magical world I barely know about. I'm not exactly qualified, you know."

"Mr. Fenton." He said, simply. "I'm not looking for someone qualified - I'm looking for someone to teach them how to _survive._"

Danny was struck for a moment, silent, realization dawning on him. "...Yeah, I doubt many of the kids at your school are going to be exempt from this war, one way or another."

"That's what I suspect, yes." Dumbledore reached over, carefully pouring the tea into his coffee cup, steam billowing up towards the ceiling. "Do you accept?"

"...Alright." He sighed. "One year."

Dumbledore tilted his head. "I suppose a trial run is in order?"

Danny rolled his eyes "don't act like I didn't hear about that 'cursed teaching position' of yours. You get one year, and one year only. Agreed?"

"...Agreed."

He fiddled with the spoon, watching the light glitter off the silver a moment contemplatively before placing the sugar into his tea. "A year, then. Okay. I can do that." He sighed, forlorn. "I don't suppose you have any ideas for lesson plans, do you?"

* * *

**A/N:** Hi.

So, explanation: I got bored and a thing happened. The End.

But really, I just wanted something fun to do at random, so I took up martian-general-bookworm's challenge for Older!Teacher!HP!Danny. Probably going to have to dig my Fifth Harry Potter book out of storage to get much farther in this, but it promises to be fun, no?

Also, kinda-sorta-sometimes working on Timekeeper again, between chapters of Shadow Wall. It's a bit weird, since all the writing seems dated to me, but there _will_ eventually be another behemoth of a 10k chapter out there. It just takes a long time to edit it and sew the bastard up, know what I mean? He'll get there. Eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Ugh, I feel like I just wrote a boring Umbridge sandwich. Somebody go back in time and beat the crap out of that woman and stuff her into a closet before she can start her speech, _please_.

Anyways Guys, I'm back. I realize there's still a whole slew of issues with this one - mainly that I somehow managed to write the Great Hall scene completely backwards - but because this is for fun I've just kinda gone with it instead of editing this fifteen million times. That and I know from reading fic that often "issues me-the-author is worried about" usually translates to "a lot of things readers never really pick up on", and I don't want to be anal about that if people really aren't going to be put off by it.

**The 6th Spectral King**: _Awesome! Add on challenge: Fem!Harry/Male! Hermiony._

Sorry, but no. Not that that wouldn't be interesting to add in (especially the whole Ron/Hermione thing), but I've already got a firm idea of what direction this story would be going in, and it's going to be less challenge!fun and more why-are-you-so-into-political-intrigue-style-plots-you-weirdo!fun. Or at least I think it is. Maybe. I'm still kinda waiting for inspiration to rise up and fish-slap me on this one.

I'd like to thank FanFreader, matian-general-bookworm, BrownHair2918, neah20, Pegasus Sword Master, The 6th Spectral King, and buslimpan for reviewing this story. I'd also like to than murry21, DrakePL, FeralBass, DaniFenton7thGradePhantom, NoxTheShadowWolf, HIHelloIWeird, AnnaRooma, Kimera20, The King's Knight, supaherolena02, 1eragon33, Jidt, SkaianClouds, GF255, therealideal10311, Soluns Skystar, Kimori Takahashi, Barren, draconis ignitus, Darknesswhereibelong, Some Weird Chick, TheSilentWarden, astroshadow, and DC-Hannah Falls for Favoriting it already, and murry21, ummmmmno530, creepygirl201, Lalenja, Bahey, Mortis Timere, female dragon, FeralBass, Reading for escape, Wilco pop, DaniFento7thGradePhantom, MoonShadow7117, Shadow Rhythm, Oyote, Ivy1t412, dragooner, AnnaRooma, neah20, Annuun, Kimera20, supaherolena02, princesspinas, Jayyefire, Carolina 36, 1eragon33, Azorawing, Jidt, SkaianClouds, Wingd knight, icyblast68101, RedHerring1412, GF255, therealdeal10311, namelessDrifter, Pegasus Sword Master, cheerfullygrim, MaterMind, KHfreak21, Soluna Skystar, messie23, Mariepc, The Dark Imperial, DoctorKnight, Kimori Takahashi, EcoReibun, Barren the Inventor, Dayndra, Sean Sinari, .562, east321,JennaUtena, NoSignalBlueScreen, islamy96, Darknesswhereibelong, Some Weird Chick, Batman Lamp-Writer, buslimpan, astroshadow, RemmySpectre, DC-Hannah Falls, and Haruhibunny for deciding to follow it. And dear god let's hope I didn't spell any names wrong or miss any of you, because that's a goddamned lot of people.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

* * *

-o0o-

* * *

Danny watched as the students entered, sitting down at each of the great wood tables. He tapped his fingers against the table he himself was sitting at, feeling the thick thud of old polished wood. This place definitely had something on the cafeteria he'd grown up with. But then again, they were also at a boarding school in a castle in the middle of Scothland. There wasn't much in common with this place and his old high school besides the ages of some of the students.

He glanced to his right, looking over to Dumbledore curiously. "How many students do you actually have here?"

"A few hundred, although I personally haven't bothered with the exact number." The man said, glancing momentarily to Danny before going back to watching the students filing in.

Danny's eyebrows raised, glancing to his side momentarily as a woman sat down next to him. "Wow, that isn't much. About half the size of my old high school."

Dumbledore nodded, eyes going distant. "Indeed. There used to be more, actually, a few decades ago. There was even some talk of expanding the school." Dumbledore sighed. "But unfortunately for us, times change."

Danny frowned, going back to watching the room, the hall filled with the talking of students. It didn't take much of a hint for him to catch the point. He should know - he'd been there a few decades ago. It didn't take much to realize how many of the former students had been involved in the war and didn't make it out.

He watched as the scared first years wandered in, lead by Ms. McGonagall. He wondered what the next few years would be like, for them.

The buzz of talk faded away as McGonagall set down the stool she was holding, placing a worn, old hat on top. Danny wondered for a moment why she just didn't conjure one instead of carrying it around, but kept the thought to himself. For all he knew, there was a specific reason for using that stool in particular. He looked on silently with everyone else as the hat finally moved, gathering itself up, the rip near the brim opening up like a mouth, and began singing.

_In times of old when I was new_  
_And Hogwarts barely started_  
_The founders of our noble school_  
_Thought never to be parted-_

Danny wondered, briefly, what his friends would think of all this, if they'd been here now.

* * *

"He's not there."

Both Ron and Hermione' eyes where darting over the staff table, looking for Hagrid, without any luck.

"He can't have left." Ron said, anxious.

"Of course not." Harry said firmly.

"You don't think he's... _hurt_ or anything, do you?" Hermione asked uneasily

"No." Harry said immediately.

"But where is he, then?"

Harry paused, before lowering his voice. "Maybe he's not back yet, You know - from his mission - the thing he was doing over the summer for Dumbledore."

"Yeah... Yeah that's got to be it." said Ron. Hermionie bit her lip, continuing to look over the staff table anxiously, before suddenly stopping.

"Who's that?"

Harry looked at Hermione, only to see her pointing up at the staff table. Sitting close to Dumbledore was a man, looking to be in his late forties. He had short black hair and thin, rectangular glasses, and wore a white shirt under a plain, black/blue robe. As Harry watched, the man turned towards the teacher next to him - Ms. Sinistra - and began talking, a clear smile on his face as he offered the woman his hand, clearly just introducing himself.

"I don't know." He said, frowning. "Maybe he's the new Defense teacher?"

"It looks like it." Ron said. "He's the only one I haven't seen before." He paused, frowning. "Wait, who's that one, then?"

Ron pointed, and Harry followed his finger to the other side of Dumbledore, a few seats down, to a small woman wearing a pink cardigan, sitting primly with her hands clasped together and her elbows on the table, waiting and watching as the students filtered in with an indulgent smile on her face. Harry's eyes widened. "I know her!"

"You do? From where?"

"That's her - that's the woman from my hearing!"

Both Hermione and Ron looked at him in shock, before both looking at the staff table. "What would she be doing here?" Hermione said. "Wait- you don't think-"

Before they could say anything else, they saw Dumbledore stand, raising his hands. The room fell into a hush, voices lowering to a soft murmur before breaking off. "To all our newcomers, welcome, and to all our old hands, welcome back." The old wizard smiled as his arm lowered. "There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

People couldn't help laughing at the pronouncement. The new teacher next to the headmaster even calling out a quick "Hear, hear!" as he joined in on the clapping. Food appeared on all the plates, and everyone did as the headmaster said and began eating.

Once they were done, the food disappeared, and Dumbledore stood again, smoothing out his beard before calling out to the school. "We have a few changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; we are also overjoyed to introduce Professor Fenton, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was a few rounds of polite clapping, to which Professor Fenton nodded, still smiling from where he sat.

"I would also like to introduce Miss Umbridge, our new school superintendent, who will be serving as both counselor and go-between for the ministry during her stay here."

This pronouncement was followed by confused clapping, as people looked to their neighbors with looks of incomprehension. Harry cast a dubious, concerned look to both his sides, a bit mollified on catching his friends concerned glances.

Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the House Quidditch teams will take place on the-"

Dumbledore cut himself off in mid-speech, looking to his side inquiringly at the small, squat witch sitting two seats down from him. It took people in the hall a moment to realize that she _wasn't_ actually sitting anymore, before she cleared her throat primly. Harry realized distantly that the short witch was actually _standing_, intending to make a speech.

Dumbledore looked surprised for a moment, before quickly taking his seat, looking attentive. The other teachers looked gobsmacked at the sudden interruption - no staff had ever interrupted the headmaster's welcome speech before.

There was snickering from the students and the odd little woman only smiled a little saccharine smile as she finally spoke "Thank you, Headmaster, for your kind words of welcome." The breathy little voice she spoke in make Harry's stomach churn.

She cleared her throat again, continuing: "Well it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts I must say!" she said cheerily, smiling wide. "And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!"

Harry glanced around. None of the students were looking at her like that - more confused and bewildered at being talked to like they were five.

Umbridge was still smiling. Harry wasn't sure if she'd just not noticed the looks on everyone's faces, or was deliberately ignoring it. "I'm very much looking forward to meeting you all, and I'm sure we'll be wonderful friends!"

Students were now giving eachother looks, and Harry could hear quiet giggling down the table. Madame Umbridge cleared her throat again, but when she continued some of the breathless sweetness had left her voice.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you where born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the Wizarding community must be passed down through the generations lest we loose them forever."

Her voice took on a dull, oft-repeated drone that left Harry tuning out completely as she went on. Harry glance across the staff table, and could see the new professor leaning on his elbows, an eyebrow raised as he stared at the squat woman a few seats down from him. Further down Professor McGonagall's dark eyebrows were furrowed so deep she looked positively hawklike, and Harry watched as she shared a significant glance at Professor Sprout as Madame Umbridge cleared her throat yet again.

Harry wasn't the only one loosing attention as she continued on, the constant quiet attained when Dumbledore has started speaking was beginning to break, whispering and quiet laughter breaking out across the tables as she was talking. The woman continued on, ignoring all of this as she went on with her speech, the only ones really paying attention at this point being the teachers and Hermione.

"-because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognized as errors of judgement. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what out to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that out to be prohibited."

She sat down, and Dumbledore clapped. The staff followed his lead, followed grudgingly by some of the students.

Dumbledore stood up again, before they could all applaud properly. "Thank you very much, Madame Umbridge, that was most illumination." He bowed to her. "Now - as I was saying, the Quiddich tryouts will be held this..."

"Yes it certainly was illuminating." Hermione said lowly.

* * *

"Man, that woman does _not_ know how to give a speech." Danny said, face twisting up in something like disgust. "All pomp, no idea how to get to the point. She'd give a law textbook a run for it's money."

They were currently sitting in Dumbledore's office, Danny sprawled over a chair in front of the headmaster's desk, sucking on a lemon drop. Dumbledore gave Danny a pointed look, despite his own small smile. "I believe I'll hold to my original words - it was most illuminating."

"Yeah, for confirming everything you where worried about already." Danny bit his lip. "I hate to say this, but should I pull back on my classes...?"

"No, no everything you're doing is on point. There isn't anything she could use against you."

"What about, well..."

"You would hardly be the first to recommend that - I believe Professor Lockhart is proof of it. Besides, you aren't doing anything other than teaching to the tests."

"Maybe, but I highly doubt she or anyone else would see it that way."

"Undoubtedly." He said simply. "I doubt that would change, if we started catering to them."

Danny looked away thoughtfully, before nodding. "Good point. This isn't the situation where it seems like Fudge will be placated. I might not be known as your biggest supporter in the world, but I doubt she's going to go any easier on me unless I'm playing on her side." He said, frowning. "How much do you know about her, honestly?"

Dumbledore sighed. "Not as much as I'd like." He said, resting his elbows on his desk, interlacing his fingers. "She's been working under Fudge since his appointment to minister, and before that she was an understudy to the last Minister's secretary. She comes from a small pureblood family originally from Wales, and hasn't shown any outward support for much Muggleborn rights in the last few years. More importantly, however," he sent Danny a meaningful look above his glasses, "she's well known for her dislike of "Half-Breeds", in the traditional sense. I shudder to think what would happen if she had any contact with a centaur, or if we'd had any students with lycanthropy. It's worrisome enough what her reaction will be when Hagrid returns."

Danny cringed. "Yeah." He really didn't feel the need to bring up Hagrid's unfortunate outing as a half-giant last year. Everyone at school and most of Wizarding England was well aware that there was a half-giant teaching here now, and the height didn't do much to hide the man. "Have you received any word from him, recently?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Not much has change since the last meeting, although I have the feeling he's keeping something to himself at the moment."

"...Huh." Danny said warily. "Well, hopefully we're able to win them over. I'd hate to think the sort of things a bunch of loose giants might end up doing under Voldermort."

Dumbledore sighed, rubbing his temple. "I wish there was an easier way of going about it, but it seems the main way we'll be able to win this war is by trying to win over those groups that sided with Voldermort the during the last war. We can only hope for the best, despite that history."

"Well, I wouldn't be that dark about it. You never know, really." Danny said offhandedly. "Things can change a lot, in a dozen or more years. Especially with groups like the giants, who can be pretty bloody on their own. I doubt too many of the leaders in that tribe where in control during the last war, and I doubt there's any love lost between them and the Death Eaters, when you really get down to it.

"That and you never know who might be convinced to fight this time - there's probably hundreds of different people who weren't even all that aware of the war the first time around. Hell, just think of what we're trying to do in France and with Madame Maxime, and things are already looking up. You never know where more unexpected help might pop up."

Danny frowned off at a far corner of the office, looking thoughtful. "Actually, I have some old friends who'd probably be willing to help, but... well, I'm not sure how useful they'd really be." Danny said, reluctantly. "They aren't involved enough to work as informants, and they'd probably stick out like sore thumbs too much to be much use, honestly."

"Is there any possibility of them being swayed to Voldermort's side?"

"No, no - nothing like that. They're pretty much unknown, to the wizarding world." Danny said, before snorting. "They're very, _very_ isolated. Good in a fight, but unfortunately they probably won't be much use unless you're looking for someone to send up a cold mountain. They're good with ice, but not big fans of the heat."

Dumbledore gave this information a thoughtful look, nodding. "I'll keep that in mind." He said, finally. He adjusted his glasses, tilting his head towards Danny. "I would be most curious, if there was a chance of meeting any of these friends, however."

Danny smiled. "I'll see if I can work something out." He finally stood up, groaning and stretching out his sore muscles. "Anyways, I should probably get going - I, unfortunately, have classes to get ready for in the morning."

"Good night, then."

" 'Night to you, too." Danny said, nodding, and stepped away from his chair, arms still up and bent behind his head as he walked towards the door. He stopped for a moment, hand resting on the handle of the door indecisively. He hesitated for a moment longer, before calling back. "...Albus?"

"Yes?"

He turned his head back, eyes directed back at the desk as he looked the Headmaster in the eye. "..._Are_ there any students here with lycanthropy?"

Dumbledore gave him another pointed look, chuckling to himself, saying nothing. He tapped his glasses back up his nose, before silently putting his pointer finger against his lips. His eyes glittered.

Danny couldn't help laughing, shaking his head as he finally turned back and pushed the door open, leaving the office at last.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Another day, another chapter. I don't feel so confident about this one, ether, but hopefully the fact that everyone gets to see the first DADA class makes up for how boring I feel it is. Bleh.

**Jayyefire:** _If I may ask, however, how old is Danny in this? He was the teacher with glasses and black hair at the feast, right? Does that make him about 40?_

It's complicated, but yes - Danny is the teacher with glasses at the feast. The rest can wait until I get into the backstory.

**The 6th Spectral King:** _If you want, I have held inspiration and his fish hand hostage, so if you want, pm me and he'll help. And fish slap you._

Wait, are you saying that him helping me and him fish-slapping me _aren't_ the same thing? I don't... why would... I just- I just feel so _lied_ to...

*takes a deep breath* Okay. Okay, we can still do this. *wipes eyes, before clearing her throat*

Alright! Thank you to princessbinas, buslimpan, Jayyefire, NoSignalBlueScreen, Pregasus Sword Master, DoctorKnight, neah20, east 231, 16ckelmen, El0ndon, FaoloanLupa, The 6th Spectral King, and namelessDrifter, for reviewing Chapter Two. A big shout out to Undeadhero143, kyuuo, eisenstein80060, Ragnar-Vale, Ivy1t412, ZeroExia, kitkatkate2008, El0ndon, FaolanLupa, toothless20, Kailithiel, Rhw 6th Spectral King, Gigabyte2598, and Rockondude for favoriting the story, and likewise for Ktteddy, kyuuo, eisenstein80060, roselin, MelonPalooza, paychocat5106, TerrorPain, Yaoifangirl1997, CareBearCara101, HEB807, LunagaleMaster, ZeroExia, kitkatkate2008, El0ndon, KazeChi, xbox432, Kailithiel, Cadriona Morningwing, Toffee Fox, The 6th Spectral King, atriptothegreatbeyond, Danny Fowl, Viki-Rose, draconis ignitus, and Rockondude for following the story. I'd also like to extend a thanks to El0ndon for following/favoriting me as an author, along with everything else. I hope you all like this chapter!

* * *

-o0o-

* * *

It was Monday afternoon, and after a long day of History, Double Potions, and Divination, Harry was about ready to call it a night. "The twins weren't kidding, when they said this year would be rough."

Ron was scowling next him, as they trekked off to class. "I can't believe it. We've barely gotten back, and we're already loaded with homework. Can't they' have gone a little lighter?"

Harry couldn't help agreeing. Between his papers in History and Potions, and now the month long dream journal they had in Divination, he could hardly imagine getting it all done. He frowned, thinking darkly about his potion assignment as he remembered Snape banishing his potion right as class ended. He'd barely even started the year, and he was already receiving low marks in Potions. Harry almost wished he hadn't shown up to class at all.

He shook his head, trying to forget the horrible start to the day as they turned the corner, coming on the Defense classroom. Harry raised an eyebrow as they came upon it, seeing students piled outside the door. They where almost all huddled in groups talking, except for one curly haired girl with her head buried in _The Art of Magical Self-Defense_.

Ron took a step forward, calling out "Hermione!"

Hermione looked up, looking startled, before carefully placing a book mark between the pages and closing the book. "Oh, I didn't see you two coming. I still haven't managed to catch up on the book yet - I hope the teacher won't ask us anything about the second half of it..."

Ron frowned, frustrated. "I don't know why you're worried - he hasn't even had the time to assign us anything, and we never did get our summer work."

"Though that's never stopped people like Snape before." Harry said, scowling.

"But Snape's a git - we haven't even really met this bloke yet." said Ron.

Harry didn't have the chance to respond, cut off by a cheerful "Good Afternoon!" Harry and the rest of the students turned, watching as the Teacher approached from behind. "Sorry about that - I managed to leave something in my office, and needed to run back to get it." Professor Fenton said, stepping forward through the parting students.

The first thing that struck Harry was the man's accent - it was obvious he wasn't British, the American accent as clear as day. For a moment it occurred him that Dumbledore had been forced to go outside the country to find them a Defense teacher, after the last one had been locked in a trunk for an entire school year, and absently wondered if Dumbledore had even bothered to tell the cheerfully smiling man about that.

The second thing was that this man was _tall_. He towered above the students as he walked through the crowd. He might not have been as tall as Hagrid, but the man certainly dwarfed all of the other teachers he'd seen at Hogwarts.

"Ah, also - before I forget." The Professor said, as he pulled out his keys, unlocking the door. "Next time I'd prefer it if you guys lined up outside the door, instead of taking up the entire hall. Other students need to be getting to class, too."

He pushed the door open, leading the class into the room. Harry bustled past the rest of the students with Ron and Hermione, coming into the classroom as the teacher stepped up to the front. "Welcome, everyone, to Defense Against the Dark Arts." He said, smiling. "Believe me, I've heard _a lot_ about how you guys have been taught over the last few years, so let's see this as a new start. The next year will be full of challenges - especially you fifth years with OWLS coming up - but we're going to start working to make sure all of you are capable of passing this year."

Harry found a seat, dropping his bag down as the teacher, clapped his hands together, clasping them in front of his chest. "Now, to start, I'm going to have to ask you guys to put your wands back and have your quills out - we're going to be having a test." There was groaning that Harry quietly joined in on, students having just sat down sliding their wands back into their robes, while others collapsed into their seats. The Teacher smiled placatingly "I know, I know - this isn't meant to punish you guys. I just need an accurate indicator of where you guys really are in your studies. You won't even be graded on this." He smiled again. "On the plus side though, if any of you can get an A - ugh, I mean, _more than 90%_ of the test right, I'll award you extra credit _and_ house points. So keep that in mind and do your best!"

There was more shuffling as papers where passed out and quills where retrieved. Harry looked down at the first page, reading the question. _What is the proper response when confronted by a Boggart?_ He frowned down at it, remembering suddenly the incident with the Boggart over the summer. He squeezed his eyes shut, pushing it out of his head, reaching out and removing the cap off his ink jar. He forced himself to think of his lessons with Lupin instead, back in third year, when practicing the Partronus charm. To the first time he'd seen a Boggart, in this very classroom years ago, and quickly wrote down his answer.

He could hear quills scratching on every side, and looked up to see Hermione scratching frantically at the margins on the second page, and Neville next to her silently panicking, nearly shaking as he filled out the first. He heard Ron on his other side curse, before frantically scratching something out. Harry looked back down to his page grimly, before returning to the test.

After a gruelingly long amount of time, Professor Fenton stood up from his seat at the front of the room. "Alright, the test is over. Turn it face down on your desks - no more writing."

There was the sliding of paper and the flipping of sheets, and Harry jotted the last of his answer down before quickly following suit.

The Professor smiled at the front of the room. "Good. Now that that's over with, let's get on with the class."

Professor Fenton took a deep breath. "I'm sure all of you, one way or another, have some odd ideas of what to expect from this class. Because none of you have been taught consistently, and have had everything from good teachers to... less than mediocre ones," he took a step forward, arms placed behind his back, "all of you probably already have some guesses what type of teacher I could really be."

He looked at them sternly. "I'm going to dispel whatever crazy ideas you might have about me right now. The goal of this class, more than anything else, is to fill the holes in your education, fix whatever damage or miscommunication has occurred over the last four years, and get you ready to face your OWLS with grace.

"I'll gladly admit that I'm not the best person for teaching you magic - I've got no illusions about that. But I know more than well enough what it takes for someone to defend themselves, and I'm more than willing to teach all of you anything I can if it means you can protect yourself someday."

Professor Fenton raised his arm, quickly flicking his wand to the board, where a messy list began to appear:

The Basics of Self Defense Rely On:

1\. Knowing the Proper Response to the Danger.  
2\. Controlling the Playing Field.  
3\. Realizing and Preparing for the Uncontrollable.  
4\. Understanding the Ramifications of your actions.  
5\. Common Sense under fire.

"At the forefront of all fights are five things. Whether we're talking war, a duel, or an altercation with a transformed Werewolf, all of these aspects are true." He said, ignoring his students as they rushed to take out their parchment and jot down what was on the board. "No matter what, when it comes to actively defending yourself, you need to keep these in mind." He stepped to the board, standing to the side of his writing and tapping his wand against the first point. "First, it doesn't matter if it's a fight you're looking after or not - as people say, very often the best defense is taking the offensive, and the most powerful weapon is understanding the enemy beforehand. Knowing the proper response to danger will save you more than anything else will, and it's best you remember that. It doesn't matter if it's breaking the hold of a Grindilow or warding off a Pixie, if you have the knowledge for what you need to do ahead of time, you're more likely to come out of the situation unscathed."

He lowered his wand slightly, tapping the second point. "Second, avoiding bad situations before they can happen. To put it simply, if you don't want to get involved in a nasty incident, have the basic sense to stay away from a bad situation in the first place. If there's reports of incidents in the area, know about them ahead of time, avoid getting involved. If there's news of injuries or death in an area, or a dangerous creature is well known to exist in an area, avoid it."

Another tap. "If you _can't_ avoid it, be prepared for it. Study up on their habits and inclinations, and gather up any needed tools you'd need to defend yourself long before entering the situation. For example, if you know an area is infested with Doxies, it's best bring your doxicide and an antidote, so you can be ready if something happens ahead of time."

Tap. "You also need to be well aware where your right to defend yourself actually ends." He scowled, sending a penetrating look across the room. "I've got no illusions that some of you in this class won't end up completely innocent in your encounters, defending yourself or otherwise. You can be quite sure that there's more than a few situations where self-defense _isn't _a legitimate excuse in the eyes of the law. For example, any time where defending yourself would involve the imperious curse will immediately result in you being committed to Azkaban, whether you where defending yourself or not. This is a delicate subject, as very often even simple spells used in the process of defending yourself might be quite dangerous to anyone else, and while most Dark Magic is inherently dangerous with little application outside of causing harm, any charm or spell capable of irreversible damage might result in a very similar trip to Azkaban. We'll be covering the specifics of this throughout the course, to make sure all of you remember to toe the line."

"And lastly," tap, "Common sense. We'll be learning to apply logical responses on the fly, applying what we've learned in class, and learn to keep a level head in the middle of an altercation. We're going to focus on making all of your responses _smart_, as well as knowledgeable."

Professor Fenton sighed, turning around to face the class properly, drawing away from the board. "Now, this would usually be the point where I'd dismiss everyone for the day, but since this is Double Defense, we're going to all get up and move on to next classes lesson. So all of you, grab your wands and stand up at the front of the class - we're going to spend the rest of class doing things a little more hands on."

There was a great shuffling as everyone stood up, gathering up together at the front of the class. Once everyone was up, the Professor waved his wand, subsequently pushing all the desk to the back of the classroom with a loud screech.

Harry stood somewhere in the middle of the crowd of students, Ron and Hermione standing nearby. He had his wand at the ready, and wondered if maybe the Professor was going to show them a Dark creature, like Professor Lupin used to, or if he'd be showing them something else entirely.

"Now, from what I've heard from Dumbledore, a few of you actually have a little bit of experience already in dueling." Professor Fenton said. "It seems some of you managed to join in on the dueling club a few years ago, which gives you a bit of a leg up in this class."

Harry blinked, surprised. He hadn't thought of the old dueling club in years - which was quite expected, since he'd only attended it once. Harry frowned at the memory, and realized watching out of the corner of his eye that he wasn't the only one who suddenly remembered as a group of students started talking in hushed tones, sending fleeting glances his way.

"Who in here was a part of the dueling club?" Harry raised his hand grudgingly, along with a sizable portion of the rest of the class. "Good. I'll ask all of you to be a bit patient and help anyone else who looks like they're struggling during the first few lessons - this should all be relatively familiar to you already."

There was more quiet talking to the side, and Harry clenched his fist and looked down at the floor, trying not to focus in on their conversation. He could hear quiet laughing.

Professor Fenton suddenly cleared his throat. "You three in the back there - don't think I can't near you." The conversation cut off sharply. Harry looked up as Professor Fenton gave them a stern look. "Good. Now, let's move on to the exercise for the day. This shouldn't be too hard, and I'm sure most of you are more than familiar with the idea." He paused, pointing to near Harry. Harry looked, realizing Hermione was raising her hand next to him.

"Yes Miss...?"

"Hermione Granger." She said quickly. "Professor Fenton, are you implying that we're going to be dueling in class?"

"Yes, exactly." He said, simply. "It's the best way I can think of to practice defending yourself from spells, and learning how to respond quickly. The fact that your Second Year instructor thought of it would have been genius if any of his course outlines proved he had half a brain cell." That drew a few surprised laughs from some of the male students, which made Professor Fenton smile.

Hermione was frowning deeply, hesitating a moment, before speaking again. "But isn't that dangerous? And it's hardly even covered, on our OWLS!"

"Hermione, let me explain something to you." Said Professor Fenton. "I'm here to teach you to defend yourselves, and sometimes that means you're going to take up your wands against someone else. Now, I know full and well how your teachers in previous years have chosen to do that, and I also know what was recommended you learn as part of your OWL exams. Don't think I forgot any of that.

"But at the same time, I can't possibly think of a better way for you to learn how to defend yourself than by actually _doing_ it. And since I can hardly expect to bring in every magical creature covered in your text on such short notice, especially the more dangerous ones you'll be studying in fifth year, I've decided to do the next best thing by giving you the chance to learn and fight among yourselves." He said, smiling. "Don't worry about the results just yet, your hardly going to be throwing curses at each other on the first day."

"Now, I noticed you'd raised your hand earlier. You where in the Dueling club, back in the day?" He asked her, smiling even more as she nodded. "Good. Now, would you mind coming to stand up here and give the class a demonstration?"

Hermione looked shocked for a moment, too much to even articulate her response, before quickly nodding, stepping up to the front of the class. The Professor motioned part of the crowd back as she stepped up. "Come on, a little more room here - good, I think that's enough for now." He motioned Hermione forward, taking a hand and placing it on her shoulder to move her into position. He patted her shoulder, sending her an encouraging smile at her somewhat nervous face, before turning back to the class. "Now, does anyone else want to volunteer for this demonstration?"

The class shifted hesitantly, staying silent. No one was particularly looking forward to offering themselves up for a duel against Hermione. Professor Fenton rolled his eyes, sighing frustratedly at them. "No takers? Really?" He said. "Not even from any of you in the dueling club?" When he didn't get a response, he sighed frustratedly, looking over the entire group of them before pointing out one of them - Seamus. "You where in the dueling club, I think. Come up here already."

Harry could plainly see the scowl on the other boys face as he stepped up, standing across from Hermione at the front of the room.

"Good, then let's get started." He said, taking a step back. Both Seamus and Hermione where standing at opposite side of the loose circle of students, Professor Fenton standing like a referee between them, just a few steps back from the center. "Now I don't want anything complicated - only what you learned during the dueling club. I don't want any fooling around here, got it?" He waited until both of them nodded, Seamus still looking a bit put out. "We're going to start simple. Both of you know how to disarm?"

Hermione nodded. Seamus hesitated a moment, before nodding as well. "Good. Now Hermione, I'm going to ask you to face..." He sends Seamus a questioning look. "Sorry, what's your name?"

"Seamus. Seamus Finnigan."

"Alright, Hermione, I want you to face Seamus like you're beginning a duel. Both of you, bow to each other."

Both students gave him an alarmed look. Hermione hesitated, head moving as though to speak before drawing herself up and saying. "Professor, you really want us to duel? I don't-"

"No, no, I'm not asking you to just start dueling." He said, placatingly. "Just act like you are. Since we _will_ be dueling eventually, you might as well start getting used to it now."

"Now, Hermione, let's start with you." He said, looking at her. "Once both of you have bowed, I want you to disarm Seamus. Nothing fancy, alright? Just like this-" There was a quick flick of the wrist, and the teacher called out "Expelliarmus!"

Hermione jolted slightly as the Wand quickly slipped out of her hand, flying like a dart towards Professor Fenton, who snatched it out of the air with barely a glance. "There. Line diagonal down to the right, twirl counterclockwise - wait, no, _anti_clockwise, sorry - then the incantation. You got that?"

Hermione nodded quickly, lips pressed into a thin line. The Professor only smiled more. "Good. Now, why don't you show the class how it's done?" He turned to Seamus, tossing Hermione's wand absently in her direction, causing her to fumble awkwardly with it as it landed straight in her arms. "Alright, both of you at the ready - stand facing each other. Don't start until I tell you to." There was the shuffling of feet as they got into position, Hermione now scowling as she held her wand out. "Bow." Both of them stiffly and awkwardly bowed to each other, before going back to staring at each other. "Hermione, disarm him."

Hermione whipped up her wand without any more prompting, quickly flicking her wrist into a twist as she called out _"Expelliarmus!"_

Seamus' wand shot out of his hand like a popped cork, shooting up and nearly touching the ceiling before falling down on the floor between them with a clack. Professor Fenton whistled appreciatively, clapping his hands as the wand rolled across the floor. "Good job! You know your wand-work, Ms. Granger - excellent work. A little more practice and you'll have it down perfectly." He absently waved his wand, and Seamus' wand floated over to it's owner, who quickly snatched it out of the air. "Now, let's start from the top. Seamus, would you do the honors?"

Seamus shifted uneasily, but nodded. "Alright, face each other and bow. Seamus, remember: diagonal, twirl, expelliarmus. Now, Get to it."

They both turned to face each other again, and awkwardly bowed. Seamus lifted his arm focusing hard on Hermionie, and gave his wrist a twist. "Expelliarmus!"

A stream of light went out of Seamus' wand with a bang, making Hermione stumble back as her arms recoiled into her chest. Hermione's wand was swiped from her hands, shooting upward, and Hermione _shrieked_ as it went straight up her nose. There was a surprised shout from the class, and Hermione was now crouching, holding her face, her wand fallen at her feet.

Professor Fenton rushed forward, kneeling down next to the girl, completely ignoring the class as people started laughing. "Oh Jeeze, are you alright?" He said worriedly. His hands where up, hovering near the girl's face. "Come on, I need to know how bad it is. Let me see-"

Hermionie eventually lowered her hands slightly, just enough for him to see her nose. The teacher cringed, looking at the blood across her hands and slowly trickling down her face. He brang up his wand quickly, muttering. "Tergeo."

The blood vanished from her face and her hands for a moment, only to be replace by the slow flow still trickling down her face. "Episkey!"

The trail of blood slowed. Hermione reached up, gingerly clutching her nose. "How does it feel? Does it still hurt?"

"No." She said, voice muffled slightly by the hand still clutching her nose.

Professor Fenton reached into his robe, handing her a handkerchief, which Hermione hesitantly took. "Hold your nose closed for a while - if the blood doesn't stop, you're going to have to go get it checked out. Do you think you can manage, until class is over?"

Hermione nodded quickly, pushing herself to her feet, wiping her face with the hankerchief before going back to holding her nose closed, walking back towards Harry and Ron.

Professor Fenton stood, sighing. "Now, before I have you separating into groups, I have a question for you guys: how does any of this help us? Why am I, of all things, teaching you how to do this?"

Hermione raised her hand. Danny motioned to her, nodding. Her voice was muffled as it came out. "It's to get us ready for a fight."

"Correct, but," he said, holding up a finger. "Why this spell in particular?"

The room was quiet a moment. Harry frowned, before hesitantly raising his hand. The teacher smiled, pointing to him. "Because it could save our life, in the long run."

"Exactly!" He said, nodding. "The disarming charm is simple, fairly easy to use, not likely to injure your opponent much, but at the same time is completely devastating in a fight. If you've managed to disarm your opponent, you've weakened them severely, and even with wandless magic at their disposal you've severely limited the amount of power they're capable of. Disarming them can completely turn the tide of battle in your favor, all without hurting anyone or resorting to curses or hexes. It's the perfect way to defeat your opponent without ever risking legal problems."

"Now, I want all of you to break up into pairs - do not start until I say so, however. You'll be practicing both bowing and disarming, and nothing else. Anyone who ignores that looses house points and will end up getting detention. Now, all of you - start breaking up!"

The rest of the class period was spent bowing and trading off disarming charms. Wands were sent flying across the room at random, and more than once a student was sent sailing across the room, tripping over their own feet before eventually crashing into the floor. the Professor was wandering across the room, retrieving stray wands and checking over students sent crashing. No one was sent to Madame Pomfrey, but by the time class was over there was more than a few bruises being nursed and Neville was holding a hand over his eye.

Professor Fenton was standing at the front of the class again, watching as the students packed up, calling out after them as they got ready to leave. "I want twelve inches on the proper conduct during a duel. It should be covered in chapter twenty seven of your textbook, but I want you site at least two other sources from the library. Particularly I want all of you to be looking at _The Standard Conduct of a Tournament Dueling Championship_, which I've put multiple copies of on reserve in the library for all of you. Ask Madam Pince for a copy if you can't find it in the shelves, and she'll provide you one. Have your paper done and handed in by next Monday, and I'll see you on Wednesday. Class is dismissed!"

* * *

Harry walked out between both Hermione and Ron, partially relieved that classes are over for the day, and partially dreading the added homework.

Ron was the first one to speak up. "So, what'dya reckon? He seemed alright, as far as Professors go."

Hermione scowled at the mention of the Defense teacher, lips pursing. "I can't believe that man. I thought it was just a fluke, when the textbook kept going on about dueling. *I can't believe we'll be flinging spells at each other, instead of getting ready for our OWLs!" Her nose was still distinctly red. Harry wondered for a moment if she would have been better off getting it checked out.

"I don't see why you're so angry about it, really." Ron said. "It's hardly _his_ fault Seamus made your wand go up your nose."

Hermione simply scowled at him, face going red and hands fisted at her sides as she twisted at the waist, putting all her effort into looking at Ron even as they walked down to the Great Hall. "That is _not_ what I meant, Ron! This is serious - our OWLs determine our future classes _and_ jobs!"

"I think it's a good thing." Harry said, trying to avoid glancing around to see if anyone was looking at him as they entered the Great Hall. "He's right, you know - there isn't a better way to learn how to fight other than having done it already."

Hermione hesitated a moment, but continued frowning. "I didn't say there was anything wrong with being able to defend yourself. It's just..." She hesitated, before huffing. "It's just the whole way the Professor is going about it! We can't just practice with each other and expect to ace our OWLs - there's more to the OWLs than just waving your wand around in practicals. What are we supposed to do on the written section, if all we do in class is duel?"

"If that test he had us do is anything to go off of, I'm not so sure you should really be worried about that." Ron said. "Admit it, you're just sore because you got shown up in a duel."

"He hardly sounded confident in his abilities." said Hermione. "He said himself that he wasn't the best person to be teaching magic."

Harry frowned, eyebrows creasing together. "That doesn't sound right - Dumbledore wouldn't leave us with a teacher who couldn't manage to teach us proper magic."

"You say that, but with how few people are willing to take the job I wouldn't be surprised if he _had_ to." Hermione was frowning thoughtfully now, finally being derailed by her own thoughts. "I wonder if he's more of a dualist, than a Dark Arts expert? Maybe if Dumbedore couldn't find someone qualified, he settled for something similar enough to manage." She sighed in frustration. "Ohh, why did this have to happen during OWLs!"

Ron was now rolling his eyes, but refrained from saying anything else - they were all sitting down at the Griffindor table now, and trying to talk Hermione out of something when she was like this wasn't worth the effort. Instead, he focused on loading up his plate with food, ignoring his friend for the moment as he got ready to stuff his face.

Harry had to wonder how he was supposed to even get sleep, when all of his classes where loading him up with homework. However, for the moment it didn't matter - Harry let himself forget about his assignments as he sat down to eat, listening absently as the silence was finally broken as Ron and Hermione started bickering.

* * *

The halls were empty at this time of night, even from patrolling teachers and Filtch. He appreciated the silence - the night sky was clear, out here, and between the clean air the missing light pollution and the hush of the early morning, Danny could almost pretend the cold night was enough to wipe away all the thoughts in his head. Even if it never did, he still managed to find himself drawn to the stars anyways. Staring at them for a few hours made it feel a bit more like home here, at least.

Danny sighed appreciatively, making his way back down from the Astronomy tower. He was happy it wasn't his night to be patrolling, and more importantly that they didn't have to work _nearly_ this early when they did. From what he understood there just wasn't much use patrolling the halls near four in the morning, when quiddich players might just be getting up to practice instead of sneaking around in the middle of the night. That and no one could reasonably ask any hard-working teacher to stay up all night, just to patrol the halls. It left the castle oddly peaceful, in Danny's opinion, and he was looking forward to the coming sunrise in the next few hours, even without the sleep.

Finally he came to the bottom of the staircase, on the ground floor only a little further away from where he'd originally intended. He still wasn't used to the staircases moving, but he considered he was doing pretty damned good for himself, for only being on the property for a week.

It didn't take long for him to find his office. It was a smaller one, with only two rooms attached to it - the office and the bedroom - but he really didn't care that much about the size. He glances around, and notices a large tray in the sitting room, on the coffee table.

Danny sighed. The house elves must have realized he was still awake - they never delivered the thing quite this early. He walked over to the tray, staring down at the hot... whatever it was the house elves had used to make coffee in. It looked like a tall, metal pitcher, rounded and engraved and topped off with a little lid filled with slits, releasing gentle plumes of sweet purple smoke. He'd taken off the lid the first time he'd gotten it, trying to figure out how it worked, only to look down in a little round shoot at a magical blue fire resting on heated coals, continually sparking different colors as they glowed.

He could remember the first morning he'd seen the thing after asking for coffee instead of tea with his breakfast, and had pretty much just looked at it, looked at one of the elves, before bluntly asking what the hell that thing was. He'd learned (after a bit of bowing and apologies from his cursing) that they'd been provided for the visiting teachers from Dumstrung last year and had been a huge hit with both them and the Beauxbaton faculty. Apparently Madame Maxime enjoyed the thing immensely, requesting it constantly for both her tea and her coffee. He'd turned back to the odd coffee-maker after hearing that pronouncement, distracted by the obnoxiously extravagant-looking container enough that he'd completely missed when the house-elves popped out of his room. Worst of all, he still hadn't managed to find out what the thing was actually called.

As he stared down at it, a part of him debated just popping out of the castle and getting his own damned coffee maker from his house, but then again, it's not like there were any convenient outlets here, in the castle. There wasn't even a stovetop in his room - the only real thing he could try using for cooking was the fireplace, and despite the numerous years he'd spent learning magic, he'd never bothered to learn how to cook in one. The closest he'd ever gotten was what he could make in a campfire, and he didn't think that was really the same thing.

Besides, what was he supposed to do if someone floo'd in and knocked over a pot of stew? He might as well rig a pot of boiling tar outside his door, for the reception that'd have.

He finally reached out, setting a cup under the little spigot on the coffee-things side, pouring himself a small cup of the strong coffee. He lifted it up, gently blowing with a tiny hint of his ice-energy to cool it off. They'd given him little tea cups instead of mugs, which meant it took him twice as many in the morning to get functional, but he ignored the injustice of it all as he put the cream and sugar in. He placed the tea-cup onto a saucer, balancing it as he made his way over to the couch, expertly plopping down without spilling any. He sighed, taking a sip, placing the saucer down on the side table only to get distracted by the book already sitting there.

He reached over, setting the saucer on the other side of the book, before beginning to flip idly through the textbook, skimming the words as he sipped his coffee. He still hadn't really read all of it - he'd only picked it on Dumbledor's offhand suggestion of reading it, something about the original author and a teacher in New Zealand using dueling as the core foundation of all their wand work. He'd been merely curious at first, but had been immediately swayed on picking it up and reading the nearly spot-on information in the chapter on wand combat. Hell, even with his years of spell casting and trial-by-fire regiment from ghost hunting, he _still_ managed to pick up a handful of things he'd never bothered to think about.

From what he'd seen both from reviews and his own skimming of the book, the rest of the content had been just as suitable for his class. He hoped his guess was right, or else he'd be left completely out of his league once the year started hitting it's stride. Danny didn't even want to guess what he was supposed to do, if that happened, and let himself be placated by Dumbledore's assurances he was doing perfectly fine.

There was still much he didn't have ready for the coming year - especially on such short notice. It was frankly shocking, how much materials Remus had gotten together over the summer just a few years ago to get ready for this class. Danny sighed. He was probably going to have to talk to Miss Grubbly-Plank to get proper access to magical creatures - being secluded from the wizarding world didn't leave you much time to make connections.

He tapped his fingers against his cup, thinking of his first attempt at dueling in class. It could have gone better - _much_ better - but he was proud he didn't loose his cool when that girl got injured during the demonstration. He'd learned to deal with a lot over the years, but somehow this whole experience of trying to teach a bunch of kids to defend themselves was wearing away at his nerves a bit. He shook his head, sighing, but cringed when he suddenly realized he'd have another Double Defense class later this morning. No matter what way he looked at it, he was probably going to be doing this a dozen or more times before the week was out.

He sipped his coffee thoughtfully, humming to himself. He'd have to start taking his sleeping pills again, at this rate. He'd need to get some sleep soon, or else this week was going to _suck_.

Well, he was at least probably better than nothing. It would be a near thing, but at the very least he was confident he could eventually win out against Professor Lockhart. He'd have to really be out of touch to screw a goal like that up.

But that idiot had been lucky - he didn't have a woman like Umbridge plucking on the political strings, setting the stage and waiting for whatever she could use to her advantage. The woman hadn't made her presence to him known yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Until then, he'd plead the fifth until she finally put in the effort of actually introducing herself to him, and from there...

Well, after that came the fireworks, he was guessing. And he was going to be in the crossfire, along with anyone else who tried to teach these kids how to take care of themselves. All on purpose.

He sighed, flipping the book closed with a 'thwap', holding his coffee nestled in both hands as he leaned back bonelessly into the couch. "God, I just hope Dumbledore has the right idea with this one..."


End file.
